ing, just after I had obtained a Henry IV.
silver coin, in fine preservation, we were taken home by a long walk
through the Rue St. Honore. The house No. 3, in this street, is the one
in front of which Henry IV. was assassinated by Ravaillac. A bust of the
king stands against the second story, with an inscription. In the Rue
Vivienne, No. 34, we saw the house where Moliere died, on which is a
marble tablet, with this inscription: "_Moliere est mort dans cette
maison, le _17_ Fevrier_, 1673, _a l'age de_ 51 _ans._" At the corner of
the same street, where a small passage way branches off, is a fine
monument to the memory of the great poet and the noblest comic writer of
France. The statue is of bronze, in a sitting posture; on each side are
figures,--one humorous, the other serious,--both looking at the statue.
At the foot of the monument is a basin to receive water, which flows
from three lions' heads. This work was put up in 1844, with public
services, on which occasion the first men of France took a part. Another
morning's walk led us to the Rue de l'Ecole de Medecine, and in this
street Marat lived, at No. 20, and here it was, in a small room, that he
was stabbed, while bathing, by Charlotte Corday, in 1793. And in this
same street was held the old club of the Cordeliers.
When I see the places of which I have heard so often it seems very
interesting, and will forever identify the scenes with my future
reading.
We all enjoyed a visit to the palace of the Luxembourg. This edifice was
begun in the sixteenth century, and the present palace was chiefly built
early in the next one, by Marie de Medicis, in imitation of one at
Florence. Bonaparte used it when chief consul. The old senate held its
sessions there till its dissolution, in 1814. I never saw a building
whose proportions appeared to me so elegant. The court is a
parallelogram of three hundred and sixty by three hundred feet. The
front consists of two pavilions, joined by terraces, and in the centre
rises a cupola, around which are statues. In such a palace fine rooms
are to be expected, and here they are in great number. The Senate
Chamber or Chamber of Peers, is very suitable for its purpose. The
library is good, and contains about fifteen thousand volumes. The
picture gallery is large, and at present principally filled with
pictures of living artists, and at his death the picture of each one is
removed to the Louvre. All the great paintings of Napoleon's battl
|